Hello, teachers. Ben Jennings here. I'm here with Miles Scarborough. How you doing, Miles?
I'm good, Pastor Ben. How are you?
This video is for session five in our study at Exodus. And the one big difference between
this video and previous ones is that with this video, you wrote the outline.
I did.
Not me. So this is...
I'm sorry everyone.
This should be exciting.
I'm going to ask you why the Spanish Inquisition. I get to ask you why in the world did you
choose these points.
Right.
And it should be fun. So do you feel nervous at all?
No, I don't think so.
This is going to be permanently on the internet.
I don't think it will ever...
I have a lot of things that are permanently on the internet.
I don't think it will ever come off.
So this particular... So help us understand what's the context, what's going on with this
lesson?
Right. So where we're at is that we just finished our last lesson, I guess two lessons ago because
we had a Christmas lesson, but we were talking about the Passover and then Pharaoh says,
okay, get these people out of here and bless me also.
Right?
Yeah.
So they all leave and then Pharaoh changed his mind. That's what we don't see in this
passage.
It was a big gap between, I don't know who Jehovah is, get back to your burdens to, yes, please
leave as you go, bless me also.
Right.
Right. Now I knew who God was.
Yeah, exactly.
But then he eventually changes his mind and says, you know what? I do want to kill him.
I want them back.
Right.
And I want to punish them and I want them to be mine. And then so he starts going after
them and then the people now are stuck at the Red Sea and then they see that Pharaoh's
behind them and now they're questioning and this begins their kind of doubt and worry
that they start having as they go through the wilderness.
The grumbling phase.
Right.
But it's understandable because now they have the Red Sea right in front of them and then
Pharaoh coming to attack them. So what are they going to do?
Right. The session kind of emphasizes the idea of God's power and then our response
to God's power of having faith in how strong he is.
I think this may be a theme that comes up a lot, but I kind of feel this way about whenever
you read the Bible, you know, we as Bible teachers can be really harsh on the people.
Right.
Like, oh, they're doubting. How dare they doubt and they're so faithless and stuff like that.
But and we tend to think I would do it different. Like I know how I would react. I would be
way more faithful in the truth of the matter is we probably would be complaining right
along with them.
Right. Exactly.
So that seems to be kind of part of the part of the lesson we can learn. So the objective
statement you wrote in today's lesson is this, that we can strengthen our faith in God,
our faith in God can be strengthened by recognizing three qualities of his power. So this is all
a lesson all about God's power.
Yes, sir.
And you see that demonstrated through Exodus 14, 19 through 31. So the first section you've
described this way, God's power leads us through our circumstances. So there's a leading quality
to his power.
Let's read verse XS 14, 19 through 22. And the angel of God, which went before the camp
of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud went from before their
face and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of
Israel.
And it was a cloud and darkness to them. But it gave light by night to these so that the
one came not near to the other side, near to the other all the night. And Moses stretched
out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong wind all that
night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went
into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on their
right hand and on their left.
Wow.
Right. Sees power there, right?
And I've never thought about verse 19 and 20 before in the sense that like God's providing
even before they get to the Red Sea, he's giving them that cloud and he's giving them
even a light so that they can continue traveling during night. And then, and then seeing they
get to the Red Sea and then God opens it up, which is like, you've heard that a ton of
times since Sunday school, right? But like, like we've said before, this might be the
first time someone in your classes hearing that the Red Sea is part of it.
But it's an amazing thing, the power of God just like God wasn't worried by any circumstance
that they were in. And that's why we can see that God's leading them right through that.
He tells Moses exactly what to do. Just raise your staff, the waters will part and they
do. Yeah. There's a leadership in that for sure.
Right. You know, the pillar of cloud and the fire is actually leading them. But then there's
also a defensive posture that it gives, right?
Right. Cause it's behind them as well too. Right.
Yeah. Verse 19 stood behind them.
Right. What do you think the Egyptians would have been dealing with in terms of the Red
Sea? In terms of seeing all of this? How do you think they're thinking?
Right. I think there's a sense of fear and like, oh, we're going up against like their
God. I think they would have seen that. They've already been dealing with that.
Yeah. Right. So they're like, now we're going back. But personally, I think Pharaoh at this
point is just so plagued by his fury and his anger and his hard hardness that he's fine
pushing through. He's like, I don't know if he thinks he can take God. I don't know.
But we tend to not act wisely when we're being angry.
Right. I would tend to think that the army going after them probably, I don't know, they're
probably were mixed emotions on it. Like there's probably some hatred towards their slaves
that are allow leaving. There's probably also some like, man, we keep going up against
this God and it's not going well. You know, flies.
Do we really need these slaves? Like slaves? They've been a lot of problem. Right. There's
a cost to these slaves here. Yeah. Yeah. So give me some ideas here for application miles.
Like when you're talking about leadership and God's power and leadership, how does that
apply? I think it's a beautiful thing where we don't want to like do ice to cheese, right?
And read into the text. Like we're not going to find a Red Sea in our life. Right. You
know, you could do that. Right. But there are times when we see these circumstances and
our instinct, like even the small things, like just I see any roadblock ever and I automatically
just sometimes think, well, God's failed me or this isn't good and Lord, where are you
at? Are you helping me? Like, how am I going to get through this? And like there's, he's
always helped me through the past, but now this, this new random obstacle is going to
be the one that finally does God. Right. But seeing that when I get faced with these,
these hurdles, like be able to look at how he's already providing, he provided and got
them out of exit out of Egypt. He had them escape. They exited and then he's even given
them a pillar, a cloud and given them light. So he's already providing then. So, okay,
there's a Red Sea. Well, he's going to continue to provide. And once he gets you through that,
he's going to make sure the Egyptians don't follow you and you will continue to provide.
And it's just this continual trust of, he's always said a good precedent. And that's why
these stories are beautiful. Cause you can see, well, he provided, then it's the same
God that will continue to provide now. There's a ditch on either side when it comes to like
getting direction from God, I think. Right. And now that I'm on the internet, this is
my official position apparently. Yeah. Right. And that is that like, on the one hand, you
can, you're looking for, you know, a sign in every circumstance. So today I had French
fries and, you know, I met a French guy at Walmart and then I threw a dart at the wall
and it hit the country of France. So now God wants me to be a missionary in France. It's
like, yeah, maybe that's all just coincidence. You know, you don't need to exegete your circumstances.
On the other side is to just say God doesn't ever move in circumstances. He doesn't ever
impress. He doesn't ever like, you know, that's totally done completely. So don't even worry
about praying about what you should do. Just try to use God's wisdom and, and, and don't
even pray about it, you know, and I'm very slow to say that you should try to get some
kind of quiver in your liver, you know, to try to make a decision. But I do think it's
very healthy to pray and say, God, what do you want me to do? And to try and of course
we use wisdom and all of that would cause me to seek wisdom. And if he's not going to
ask us to do something that he isn't going to equip us to do. And so I think, I think
that there is God is powerful and sometimes he does, he does lead and we have to be wise.
We have to use the word of God. He has given us, he wrote a book and I definitely, I definitely
lean towards like, what does the Bible say? What has God shaped you for? What are the
wise people in your life saying? But God uses our circumstances to lead us and he's powerful
enough like you said to get us through those difficult things and to get us where we need
to go. So I think that's a good thing. And he's definitely, he's not leading in my life
like a cloud, you know, like take me to the restaurant, you know, like we're away from
the restaurant, you know, but he's doing that here and that's pretty cool. So that leads
us to the session, sorry to tune out session to point number two, God's power defeats our
enemies. We'll look at verses 23 to 28. It says this, and the Egyptians pursued and
went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all the fairest horses as chariots and
as horsemen. And it came to pass that in the morning, watch the Lord looked unto the host
of the Egyptians and threw the pillar of fire in their cloud and the trouble of the host
of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels that they drove them heavily so that
the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel and Lord fighteth for them against
the Egyptians and the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thy hand over the sea that the
waters may come again upon the Egyptians upon the chariots and upon the horsemen and the
Lord said unto Moses, all right, I said that and Moses stretched forth his hand over the
sea, verse 27 and the sea returned to his strength when he, when the morning appeared
and the Egyptians fled against it and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst
of the sea and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the
host of the Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, there remain not so much as one
of them. Wow, that's pretty cool. Right. Just seeing the once again, his power is displayed
in defeating these enemies. I mean, I like verse 25 where it's like taking off the chariot
wheels like they can't even get out of there and they're, they're realized that this part
of we've, we've messed up like we're, we're stuck, you know, right. And, and then they
want to turn back. Now we actually get to see their emotions and see their, their fear
and they're realizing the Lord's fighting for them and we're losing. Right. And they,
I don't know if they're trying to turn around. I bet they are at this point, but now the
chariots are stuck. Who knows what their horses are doing. They're probably freaking out.
What is Pharaoh's reaction? He's still saying push forward. But you see that. And you literally
verse 25 for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. Like the, the children of Israel
are doing really anything other than just following God, right? Literally in the cloud
and God's fighting on their behalf. He's already defending them by coming around. Now he's
actually fighting for them. Yeah. And these, these are just like their slaves that they're
going after, right? These are just nobodies. Right. Yeah. These are just some Israelites,
but they have the Lord like all capital letters. Like we see that God is providing his power
stronger. These Egyptians and then seeing Moses stretch forth his hand, like having the mental
picture of being an Egyptian, you're trying to get your chariot out of the sand and then
you look up and then Moses is just raising his hand. Like, Oh, something's about to happen.
That would make a great movie. Right. Right. Yeah. And then just seeing the waters like
just start falling and I don't know if it was all at one time or if like the back is
falling. It's like dramatic effect, but in some of the movie depictions of them going
through, they have like shadows of like fish. Yeah. Right. It's almost like an aquarium,
you know, right? And so, you know, it'd be fun if I was creative enough to do like a
cartoon adaptation to have like a shark or a, you know, some fish like staring at the
staring right at the like, you know, right? It's kind of, yeah, that would be funny. Yeah.
But still seeing that God defeated their enemies and kind of an application thinking through
this is like, it's not a, this isn't an imprecatory software, you know, you're just like, and
oh, this is good because I can curse my enemies now and get the red sea to fall upon them.
More so that we can know because of seeing God always winning these victories, like thinking
of our whole battle belongs series on Sunday night, always seeing God winning and that
he defeats our, our greatest enemy, you know, if you defeat say, and like, it's not an if
it's already happened that he's already won and conquered sin and death.
I think it's less important to go, God, you need to go after my enemies, you know, you
need to fight on my behalf. It's kind of more like, God, I want your enemies to be my enemies,
you know what I mean? I want to be on your side. And so therefore, if I'm on your side,
I know that in the end, the battle belongs to you, I'm going to win. So there's, there's
that kind of like way of thinking it's an application for life. It's not about, you
know, I don't want to hate my mission field. I want, I don't, I don't know who is going
to respond and with faith in Christ and who's, you know, right, there's even, you know, stories
of people who have been martyred or put in prison. And so they're the people whipping
them. I mean, you see that with Paul, like the people beating him are the ones he's like,
you know, the Philippian jailer is a good example. Like he's literally put them in
stocks in the hindermost part of the prison. And then after the earthquake, he's like,
don't kill yourself, you know, and then he leads the whole family to Christ. So the person
who's your enemy, like humanely speaking at one moment can be, it still could be your
mission field, you know? So yeah. So just being on God's side and all of that. And then
having that idea that at the end we win, if you're on his side, you win, you know, which
is a pretty cool thing. Right. And like seeing how Jesus treats his enemies, it's, he says
pray for them and he says love them, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
So it's not a, it's seen that this Pharaoh has been overthrown and he's, he's gone and
that we can see that sin has been overthrown and that sin is gone. And that's what we get
to rejoice in. And I think that's a theme we see throughout. And I think we talked about
that in, in even session three of that. He's providing this deliverance and he's even providing
it from people that are seeking to bring evil and that we can know no matter what happens
in our life, like we have, we have a heavenly citizenship that we can look forward to and
that the opposition is not stronger than what God's done. Like even, even our enemies who
we are praying for, sometimes we still feel the, the burden of the pain that comes from
that, the mock and the, the outcast, whatever it is, but knowing that we can have hope because
of it, because of who God is and that he's one and no opposition can take down what he's
already done.
That's right. Well, then you, and then we see a progression here. God is leading us through
our circumstances. He led them. Then God's defeating our enemies because we're on his
side and if God is on our side, he can be against us. Right. But then once we see him
deliver, then, then his power then motivates us. It's motivational, right? It motivates
us to worship. So God's powers, it leads God's power, um, fights for us, defeats others.
And then now it motivates us to worship. And so that's what we see in verse 29 to 31. I'll
try not to mess up. Here we go. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst
of the sea and the waters were a wall into them on their right hand and on their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the
Egyptians dead upon the seashore and Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon
the Egyptians and the people fear the Lord and believe the Lord and his servant Moses.
And then as you get in chapter 15 to your point, they sang, then Moses sang in the church
and the children of Israel, the song unto the Lord and spake saying, I will sing unto
the Lord for the triumph gloriously the horse and his rider have the overthrown into the
sea. So yeah, that speaks to your, um, speaks to your point here, that worship.
And we've seen they're walking upon dry land verse 29, the children of Israel, like they
are in the midst of the sea. Like that's a great sentence just that they're walking
upon dry land and then they, they escape and that the Lord saved Israel that day. And I
love that it says they, no one can take credit for that. Like it wasn't Moses. It wasn't any
Israelite that was there. And cause we, we so often try to do that. Sometimes I, I'm
praying for God to help me. And then like he does. And I said, wow, I really did a good
job. Yeah. See how I got through this.
Their part is so minuscule as to, it's kind of interesting. Like they had to do something
that demonstrated that they had faith in God, but that's something that they did, that they
did could not be ever presented as this is why it happened. Right? Right. So Moses, what's
he going to, like, did you see how I put that staff over the sea? That was amazing. You
know, like, you know, did you see how we walked behind the cloud? You know, we were so good.
It's like, like they still had to follow God and do their part, but all they were doing
is just demonstrating their faith in God. And then faith is the God is the one who's
doing all the work. It's the one killing the enemies and moving the Red Sea and all the
rest. Right. And then he's the one that deserves all the glory for it. He gets the credit.
And that's what they do to their credit is that they, Israel saw the great work for 31
and then what the Lord did upon the Egyptians and they feared the Lord. And that idea of
fear is that there's this reverence and awe of, right? Oh, that's our God. And he's really
powerful and we're really glad that we're on his side, you know, and then worshiping
him and believing on the Lord. Interesting. Cause you even through this, I would imagine
that they're still just because of how stubborn creation is, is there still Israelites wondering
like, Hey, is God really for us? Like what? Okay, sure. He's, he got us out of the Egyptians,
gave these plagues. He got us, but now he's got us through the Red Sea. Like we're, it
was a check mark. It was a checkpoint of we've gotten out and now they're actually believing
in Lord and his serve and now they're actually believing in Moses too. Right. Cause I would
have taken me a long time to actually trust Moses cause he was, he was this Egyptian
guy and then he killed and then he killed someone and then he left and then now he's
coming back and now he's like, now I'm going to help.
I'm in charge. God put me in charge. Right.
And I talked to a bush. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Talk to a bush. So I have some credibility.
It's all good. Yeah. Here's my ID card. Yeah.
But now they're actually believing in him and they're believing in God and saying, okay,
he's given us Moses and Moses hasn't failed us and God hasn't failed us. Right. Now we're
going to worship him. That's amazing. And it was convicting to me in the sense of, I've
seen God do so much in my life and even this week, but it's when was the time I worshiped
him for it and even praised him and thanked him for it. And I see this even sometimes
when, when I, when I pray is that he answers it and I don't think him. I just think it's,
I think of it as a, of a formula. Okay. If the bad thing happens, I pray God answers
it, then I'm happy, you know, but I never, and I'm on to the next thing that I need to
pray about. Right. Right. It's like, okay, God, now I have this other thing, but, and
that's why I feel so anxious and overwhelmed all the time. Cause I'm not focusing on how
he's actually been providing. God, could you give me kids? Oh man, God help me with these
kids. Right. Right. God, could you grow my church? Oh my word. What are we doing with
all these people? Yeah. You know, and it's like, you never stop in pause and go, Oh,
by the way, thank you God. Thank you for what you did. This is awesome. Right. And just
worshiping for his, his power and his glory. Like it's a, it's a privilege that we get
to be on God's side, you know, right? And that we get to be his servants. Like, I sometimes
think we take that, I know I take it for granted, but knowing that he like is so powerful and
that we don't have to, nothing's ever taken him by surprise. Nothing never made him off
guard. Nothing's ever made him nervous. Right. That's why we can have our face strengthened.
One of the things I like about the outline that you put together, Miles, and I think
it's in keeping with how we should think about the whole Bible. And that is sometimes we
get to thinking that this is about Moses or this is about the people or this is about
Pharaoh. When first and foremost, this is a story about God. We were learning about
God. And this outline, you've kind of told us like, this is God revealing himself as
much as it is him delivering. He's saying, I'm a God who, who leads, I'm a God who fights,
I'm a God who deserves worship, you know, and that's those general things are true for
our lives now, right? Like it's still something he still does those things in life really
isn't about us. It's about him. And we have to, if we keep that perspective, then there's
a lot of joy and a lot of wisdom that we, that we will receive from him in living out
our lives. But if we, if we get into, what are they, what are your, what do your teenagers
say? Main character energy? If we, if we think we're, if we think we're the main character,
yeah, if we think we're the main character, then, then we're missing, we're missing the
point. Right. Yeah. So that's, that's really, really good. This is a good lesson. I think
that we want our people and I think this is going to end up being, this is going to be
the first Sunday of the year. And I think it'll be the 29th. So it won't be the first
Sunday yet. Okay. So, okay. So this is the, yeah, this is heading into the new year then.
Yes, sir. And getting us focused on God as we head into the new year is probably a good
thing. Probably. It is a good thing. Right. Right. Thanks for your, thanks for the input
miles and I'll see you a weeks from now on the next lesson. For sure. We may be wearing
the same class. Wink, wink. Yeah. Hey, by the way, too, I, I got a, I got a message from
Todd or not enough message. He said, Hey, by the way, I heard my shout out on the internet.
Oh yeah, Todd. We love you. So he's, he's, there's at least one person that makes it
to the end of our videos. So we'll see if that happens again. All right, teachers. Hey,
I hope you have a great Christmas season and don't, don't underestimate what God can do
through you because it's not you. It's him. Right. And what, what can happen as we pour
into our, into our people. All right. Have a great day.